Happy New Year to everyone! Hopefully 2014 won’t be a filler episode for you like 2013 was for many. Personally, 2013 was half a wonderful year & half miserable. It was wonderful since I finally graduated, met Josh–an amazing & hilarious individual I call my boyfriend–& I got to spend more time with some of my closest, but busiest, friends. Yet, it was miserable because if I wasn’t happy, I was stressed or depressed in some shape or form trying to organize the next decade of my life. If I wasn’t somehow masterfully disappointing myself, someone else would disappoint me instead.

I’ve never really enjoyed New Year’s & this year was no exception. Josh flew back home to Florida to spend time with his family. Despite being 3 hours ahead, he stayed up until it was 12 AM in California to Skype me even though his eyes were obviously growing heavy with sleep. Had I tried to keep him up any longer, he’d probably be snoring in the middle of my story telling! He didn’t want me to be alone, but my house was completely void of human life except my own. He was really sweet & it was the perk of the week especially since I was recovering from a 72 hour migraine & the cough I had, developed into a fever. I’ve been practically bedridden for a week, so I haven’t been able to study very much either.

Nevertheless, I’m using my break time from studying to post up my very first Blind Taste Test featuring corn puffs, ketchup, poptarts, & tea. I conducted a BTT with my roommate–who’d like to remain anonymous–Miss MOA (Michelle Obama Arms) & her friend David. Afterward, MOA tested our roommate Yuri & me with the same products. The results were pretty interesting!

With Thanksgiving on the horizon, I’ve finally found a pocket of time to squeeze in a small update with a recipe. I don’t have very many Vietnamese recipes on here, but that’ll change soon enough. Many Americans & Canadians look forward to this day to give thanks with a wonderful & hearty meal, yet there are some of us out there that are just a bit tired of the same meals every single year. My family isn’t a huge fan of turkey & as I don’t eat land creatures, my mother decided to opt out of making a turkey. Although I could’ve attempted to make a tofurkey to save a turkey, I volunteered to contribute my fair share of holiday cooking since mommy dearest has been at it for decades. So while I’ll be making the most traditional Thanksgiving dinner with my first time making turkey, my mother will be making all of the delicious Vietnamese alternative dishes. Who says Thanksgiving should only be mashed potatoes when you can have Bún Bò Huế on the side with your turkey?

These past few weekends in LA with Ben, Jane, Josh, & other special guests have been some of the best well spent weekends of my summer thus far. We’ve all tried some new food, seen new places, learned new things, laughed (live, laugh, love, you GuYsSs), played with cute puppies, played Hobbit on our phones (umm everyone should download this & play with me), blamed each other for being Mafia, subjected to Gerald’s horrendous dog farts, etc. I’m only glad summer is ending because it’ll get cooler. Let’s just say the abominable snowman is my spirit animal because I certainly am not adapted to anything above 25º C (77º F). That perspiration on my skin isn’t sweat, those are tears from my body crying from melting, equivalent to a toddler crying because candy was banned from the household.

Last Saturday, Josh surprised me by taking us to the 626 Night Market, which is a huge event full of hundreds of stalls selling food, goodies, art, drinks, & accessories. The vendors are predominantly of Asian cuisine, which is obviously my favorite–pretty sure there are more pictures of sushi than of people on my website, but I swear I have friends–& Josh’s infatuation with boba & noodles were certainly entertained.

I come bearing summer treats! Actually, just one treat, that is of course if you count new albums as treats, then yes, I think treats needs dat plural! A few weeks ago, Vegas experienced one of its hottest weeks of the summer. Fortunately for Danny, Josh, Vy, & me, we experienced it when it was around 42º C (108º F) instead of 47º C (117º F). While Danny gambled, Josh, Vy, & I went to a very overcrowded Tao Beach. We quickly left to enjoy the larger pool beside the day club without sacrificing anything other than a bar only to gain a spacious & cool pool. Sliding into the cold water was like experiencing the best day of your life transformed onto your nervous system as chills avalanched throughout your heated body. It was difficult not to be happy on such a beautiful day, in a beautiful pool, & surrounded by beautiful people.

It’s too bad we only got a short amount of time in Vegas, but it was a fantastic trip & everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. Vy especially liked that I made her pasta & brought her Hot Cheetos when we picked her up from the airport. It’s hard to believe it’s almost the weekend again!

This summer might not be as fantastic as I initially thought it’d be, but I did have an entire week of play including trips to the San Diego Zoo with Josh, Little Italy, University of California, Riverside (UCR) for Bryan’s graduation, Costa Mesa for Allison’s Going Away Party, & other food adventures in SoCal. Now it’s back to the grind with summer classes, applications, & clinical research. However, that’s not to say that my Lana Del Rey inspired title is completely accurate as there will be much fun to be had when I’m not staring at my computer for school or research. For the sake of maintaining a positively themed photojournal–I mean, if I wanted to be depressing, I should just change my theme to black, amiright?–I’ll post some of my highlights from the past week.